RG volleyball off to a strong start

Rocky Grove volleyball coach Mike Stevenson is a learner. He wanted to make the Orioles' program better several years ago, in part because his daughter wanted to play volleyball.

Simple enough.

Within that process grew a need to educate himself. And he has been doing that with the girls program that has become a respected competitor especially in the last few years.

He and his staff built the program to come within a couple wins of a region championship in 2021. He spoke about how each year he was learning new things and the program has been improving and growing as a result.

"Girls volleyball is a year-round sport," he said. The junior high program is a big focus now for the Orioles who are building a program to last.

Last season, Stevenson, who has coached the girls team for about a decade, took over the boys program as well.
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​His first year with the boys proved to have its own learning curve. He knew he had a team of athletes but still ended up under .500 on the season.

So he went to work in the off-season trying to figure out why. 

"The game is so much different for the boys and I didn't learn that quick enough last year," he said. "With the boys, it's all speed and power... how hard you can serve and how quickly you can run an offense."

One very key point from his off-season research has now almost become his mantra. "It's all about the passing," he said.

"Last year we were just trying to get the ball to the target," he said realizing they weren't concentrating enough on how the pass arrived. 

Over the first three weeks of this season, the focus has been on passing the ball at the same height with no spin on it in order to build a rhythm.

"A consistent pass allows us to run multiple things on our offense," Stevenson said after his team won its third straight match Thursday night against Maplewood.

He said the players were reluctant to buy into the new approach at first, but have come around.

And they have been seeing the results firsthand with a five-set season opener win against Conneaut Area followed by straight-set victories over Farrell and Maplewood.

Cameron King, Blayne Baker, Alez Zinz, Joshua Stevenson have been constantly scoring a dozen or more points per game.

​Baker is averaging almost 10 kills a game.

​Stevenson has a large group of sophomores and one of them, Andrew Schwab, recently came up with a big performance. He logged a couple aces and 13 points while filling in for King who had to miss the Maplewood match.

​Joshua Stevenson is setting the ball well and it's resulting in over 15 points per game average.

Stevenson said his players are really buying into the system.

​"We got off to a good start, but now they will go face Meadville who are ranked pretty high in the state," Stevenson said about the upcoming week. Meadville will be a good test for just how far they have come and be a chance to test their game against one of the best programs in the state.

"I think these guys can (make a) run if we play our A-game."